A few days at Fernworthy

A couple of brownies about a pound each - taken on a dry fly

During most of  July the fishing at Burrator has been quite poor. It is not only my blank returns but those of numerous other anglers that show this to be the case. Those of you who get Neil Reeves' weekly returns will have seen how dour things have been. Only the cormorants have been bagging up!

A fish in in the net in calm conditions

By contrast the brown trout fishery at Fernworthy has been very much worth a visit or two. I have been on five occasions in the last six weeks and have only blanked once. Both during the day and in the evening the brownies have been up in the water and fishing for them with dry flies or 'emergers' has been possible and productive. On my visits I have met a couple of other Burrator members, so I am not the only one seeking a change

A smaller one -about to go back

My other reason for going to Fernworthy was that the water levels, though drawn off to an extent, are much higher and consequently it looks much less 'drought' stricken and without the difficult muddy edges that are a problem on some parts of the Burrator banks.

My wife Gill also likes a trip out to Fernworthy so on a couple of occasions she and Honey the golden Retriever came along also and we made a picnic of it. She (Honey the Golden Retriever) is very well behaved and doesn't go in the water, unlike some of the dogs, and their less civilised owners, at Burrator.

Honey finds fishing very interesting

Scotland 2015 - A trip with a difference

Regular readers of this blog will recall that for the last couple of years Burrator member Jon Perry and myself, Peter Macconnell, have made a week long trip to the Scottish Highlands in search of wild brown trout. Earlier posts 'Watten Long Way' of July 2013, and 'Taking the High Road once again', of June 2014 tell the story in words and pictures of our fishing experiences in Caithness and Sutherland. This year we decided to go to Sutherland again and to base ourselves once more in the Cairnmuir Caravan Park in Lairg, six hundred and eighty miles from Plymouth and about fifty miles north-west of Inverness. On  Saturday 30th May we set off around 4.30am and arrived at our destination thirteen hours later having stopped only for petrol, coffee and food along the way. On Sunday we were booked to fish Loch Beannach from the Lairg Angling Club boat.

Loch Beannach before the wind got up

Beannach, being one of the smaller lochs managed by the Lairg A C is very shallow and only electric outboards are allowed. Initially our fishing went well enough and we were soon catching the typical half to three-quarter pound brownies, but then the wind got up and, as we were soon to find out, this shallow loch had many rocky shoals some of which we came upon suddenly and they made using the outboard motor quite difficult. I was anxious about breaking the plastic propeller because we had no spare with us. Rowing proved no easier in the windy conditions. On more than one occasion we wondered how we were going to get back to shore as our boat, yet again, became stuck on the rocks. However we did manage to catch around fifteen trout before we made it back to the shore where I took to the car to have a snooze (I was feeling unaccountably tired) while Jon carried on fishing from the bank.

Beannach brownie in the net

 On Monday we were booked to fish Loch Shin itself, once again from a Lairg A C boat. When we arrived at the club lodge Robert McQueen one of committee and a real club stalwart was there to meet us and offer some helpful advice. Though the club has several boats to rent we were the only ones out that day. We had the whole of the twelve mile long loch to ourselves! This was a very different prospect indeed. We also rented one of the club's four horse-power petrol outboards and we certainly needed it. On Robert's advice we made our way to Tiree Bay.

Loch Shin - Jon on the outboard in less than smooth conditions

On the way to Tiree Bay

We concentrated our efforts in this area of the loch a mile or two north of the clubhouse and on the east side of the water. We had fairly continuous sport and caught in excess of thirty trout. None of them were glass case specimens but were nevertheless strong hard fighting lively fish. All in all we had a tiring but very enjoyable day.

On  the Tuesday we were due to fish Loch Merkland but a combination of circumstances prevented us from doing so. The weather was beginning to cut up proper rough out on the big lochs and I, for some reason, was starting to feel a bit unwell. I decided to have a rest day and Jon, having the previous evening had a quick try on a local burn that ran into Loch Shin, took the opportunity to fish the River Shin itself. Interestingly we never quite worked out what the legal position was about fishing these rivers. They are essentially salmon rivers and, from a commercial point of view, there was no interest in the brown trout. The advice we were given was that provided the salmon have not yet come up over the Shin Falls no one, including the Ghillies, would mind if we fished for trout so long as we were clearly using trout tackle. So there may or may not have been 'poaching' going on! Here are some pictures of Jon's results

The River Shin from the bridge by our caravan site

A river Shin fish

A small burn fish on the dry fly

On the Wednesday morning I was feeling no better, in fact a fair deal worse. My breathing had become quite laboured and immediately Jon recognised  that all was not well. Well, to leave out the grim details, a few minutes later I was in the local health centre at Lairg being examined by a doctor, and a few minutes after that I was on my way to hospital in Inverness by air ambulance. It seems I was going into heart failure. So that was the end of my fishing for the week!

Suffice it to say I survived the experience and am here to tell tale- so to speak. That is in no small part due to Jon and his decisiveness in getting me to medical help without delay and in seeing that it was definitely required. I hope I didn't completely spoil his fishing week but I think I probably took the edge of it somewhat, to say the least.

This is where I spent the next week. The care was brilliant beyond all expectations

Frank Dunlop - RIP

The more longstanding members of the Burrator Fly Fishers will remember Frank Dunlop who was a member for many years and who left early in 2013 when he and his wife Jess left the area after more than forty years living in Plymouth.They moved to Bourne in Lincolnshire to be near to their son and his family. As a BFF member Frank was a persistently cheerful fellow, well liked and very good company. He was also a hard working man. Despite being over eighty he still plied his trade as a podiatrist on a part time basis and ran a weekly service for older ladies who relied on him to deal with their corns and bunions.

I was very sad to hear that he passed away on Monday last as a result of  domestic accident in his garage at his new home in Lincolnshire. It seems he was taken to hospital in Peterborough by emergency ambulance but did not survive. On  behalf of the club I have sent a condolence card to his wife and family. Here are a couple of pictures of Frank from his Burrator days:

Frank (in the middle) with Terry Denley and Mike Duckett June 2012

With Linda - Christmas 2011

5lb 10oz Rainbow for Mark Sinclair

Caught on the Hopper

Less than three weeks after Pat Power landed a 5lb 5oz rainbow to register the best fish of the season so far, fellow Burrator member Mark Sinclair from Horrabridge has gone one better with a fish of 5lb 10oz. In an email to me on 13th June he said:

'Hi Peter
I thought you might like to see this one!
I was just about to call it a day, with no results during a very windy day, when all of a sudden -wham- this rainbow took a hopper fished on the surface.
Regards...Mark'

22 inches on the tape

Burrator Fly Fishers Competition 17 June 2015

Seven BFF members (Pat, John, Terry, David, Stuart, Bob & Tony) met at Longstone to start the competition at 10am. Although it stayed dry throughout the day there were misty low clouds over the surrounding hills and tors.  A south westerly breeze along the south side of Longstone as usual made right-handed casting a little tricky. Some members persevered there but the majority went to the other, sheltered side of the peninsula.  Bob fished the area between the Sheepstor Dam and the main dam and was the only one to land any trout finishing with 2 rainbows of 1lb 6oz & 1lb 7oz.  He also had two brownies that he released.  Tea was brewed at the weigh-in at 3pm where Bob was declared the winner and we were joined by Peter.

Mist hangs over Yennadon Down

Kennick Flyfishers took the boat out

Most of the BFF anglers fished the sheltered side of Longstone

Burrator Fly Fishers Three Fly Competition 23 May 2015

The BFF three fly competition was held at Burrator on Saturday 23 May 2015.  There was a very good turn out with 12 members competing.  The three flies were a bibio tied by Jon (top), a gold head hare’s ear tied by Pat (centre) and a black & green nomad tied by TonyH (bottom).

The three flies

Reproduced from the 1959 Ordnance Survey 2½” map

 

The competition started at 1000 after members had collected their flies from Peter at Longstone.  We could fish anywhere in Burrator but all the members elected to fish in the area from the Sheepstor Dam to the north side of Longstone. We could see trout were rising when we first arrived and although a breeze rippled the water a few trout continued to rise for most of the day.  Hawthorn flies with their dangling legs were seen flying around and one or two landed on Pat’s car while we were tackling up.

The day began with sunshine and a gentle breeze.  It became more cloudy (better for fishing!) during the morning with a wind blowing down the reservoir from the north or northwest.  A few hardy anglers fished around the point where the wind made right-handed casting difficult.  I started on the east shore towards the Sheepstor Dam where I hooked one rainbow briefly on the gold head hare’s ear on a floating line.  Jon landed rainbow to my right and then a brownie after he had walked around to my left.  Pat fished in the corner and an hour after the start he was into a good trout.  In the net it looked to be 6lb or more but weighed later pulled the scales to 5lb 5oz.  It is quite possible that the bigger rainbows do not find enough food in Burrator to increase their weight after stocking and this one definitely looked slim.

Bill fished near Pat and had all his fish on dry fly.  John had a bag limit of five fish but did not weigh in his fish.  Jon finished with two rainbows and one brown trout that was returned.  David had one, I had one and I think Peter had one.  Ken and Linda didn’t get on the board.

Ken, who was fishing near the ruined Longstone Manor, had a nasty shock when he stepped into what could be a silted-up well.  The water suddenly came to the top of his chest waders and quick action by Peter helped extricate Ken from the soft mud.

The competition ended with the weigh-in at 3pm. Linda had baked a delicious Victoria sponge which seemed to be everyone’s favourite!  With two Kelly Kettle’s and Jon’s Ghillie Kettle on the go we all enjoyed a fresh cup of tea and a chat about the fishing.  Pat’s 5lb 5oz rainbow was the best fish of the day and with four other rainbows brought his bag total up to 10lb 8oz so he was also the overall winner.  Mark was second with 5lb 10oz and Terry third with four rainbows for 5lb 3oz.  Two of our new members fished the competition with Stuart landing 4lb 12oz and Bill 4lb exactly.

Some members carried on fishing after the competition had ended and as Peter & I drove through the gate at Longstone we were met by Al, one of the volunteer SWLT bailiffs, who checked our tickets.  A well supported day enjoyed by everyone who took part.

Jon releases a brownie

Some of the BFF members fishing Longstone

Bill enjoyed some good dry fly action from this spot

Pat with his 5lb 5oz rainbow

Ken casting a good line

Mark fishing in a breezy spot off Longstone

Terry into one of his four rainbows

Pat hooked into a rainbow while Linda fishes nearby

Some of the competitors - waiting for tea & cake

Time for a chat while the kettles boil

Steam up!

Best rainbow so far, very few browns and a lost priest

The best rainbow trout reported so far was a fish of 4 lbs exactly. It was landed by long-time club member Roy Kane on 21st April. He sent me the following brief report and pictures:

Hi Peter
Here are some photographs of the four pound rainbow trout included in a full five fish bag caught at Burrator on Tuesday 21st. It was a very windy day but it was one of the few free days I have had since opening day due to being self-employed and my business being very busy. Fishing was very slow until about 4.30pm when five fish were taken on a very small green and black Montana Nymph. I was also broken by a very heavy fish off Longstone Point.
Regards...Roy

Roy's four pounder

A good bag of rainbows taken in difficult conditions

Where are the Brownies? 

Whether it is yet too early in the season for them to be feeding high in the water, there have been relatively few brown trout caught so far. According to Neil Reeves' weekly reports only nine brown trout have been recorded on the bag returns. All, of course, have been released. Let's hope they start to show once the weather warms up a bit and there are a few more fly hatches to be seen. Here is picture of the only one I have seen so far; caught by Jon Perry from the club boat.

 A twelve ounce fish taken close to the bank.

Lost your priest?

If you recognise the priest in the picture below and yours has gone missing, get in touch by email or telephone and you can be 'reunited', courtesy of Mark Garbett who found it on the bank.